Intimate Partner Homicide

• Media reports should include interviews with local experts, such as the local certified domestic violence center to explain the tactics of intimate partner violence and identify ongoing patterns of intimate partner violence. For example, law enforcement representatives can verify if the crime meets the statutory requirement for domestic violence to differentiate this type of violence from other types of crimes. Media professionals should include multiple sources to avoid the unintended consequences caused by minimizing violence.
• It is important to name intimate partner violence as a crime and avoid terms like “disagreement,” “spat,” or mutual “fighting” that minimize the perpetrator’s actions.
• Media professionals should consider the source of the information and avoid character references from casual acquaintances of the victim or perpetrator in intimate partner homicides. Survivors often do not reach out for help due to fear, shame, and the belief that the authorities will not help. However, they may share their experiences with trusted loved ones.
• Including comments from representatives of certified domestic violence centers can provide media professionals with a contextual framework for understanding intimate partner violence. Interviewing subject matter experts from these centers also widens the scope of your news coverage. Domestic violence advocates can offer information on local services available to survivors and tools to hold perpetrators accountable. The executive directors of local centers may not be able to comment on specific cases, but can answer questions about the dynamics of intimate partner violence and resources available to survivors and their children.
• Florida’s 41 certified domestic violence centers offer an array of services for eligible survivors and their children, including information and referrals, counseling, case management, emergency shelter, a 24-hour hotline, advocacy for survivors, safety planning, court/legal advocacy, and community education.

Some women in domestic violence situations will try to make their abuser happy so they don't get hurt. That may explain why the victim allowed the perpetrator to spend time with her family over the weekend. It's much like if you were kidnapped by a stranger. You wouldn't agitate that person. You would placate and appease that person and try to keep yourself safe in that situation until you find a way out. Having a child involved can also make the situation very complicated. Stronger penalties for abusers are necessary, Pye said, but she also believes communities need to band together to send a message that this kind of behavior is not acceptable, which takes that responsibility off the victim. We have to get in front of this issue. Part of that is the accountability. The first time these individuals come into contact with law enforcement, we have to prosecute those things to the full extent of the law. People have to be held accountable. People have to pay for what they're doing.” - Full Article